A big reveal: to sign-post or not...?

Muppster

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I’m writing a play which turns around one of the characters being revealed to be dead/a ghost in the room (not as Sixth Sense as it sounds, honest).

Up to this point said character has been assumed by the audience to be part of the action in the room: he talks and appears to interact with the other characters, but through sneakyclever means the main character isn’t aware he’s in the room. The idea is that the reveal has that moment of ohhhh for the audience in realising he was a ghost all along.

My question is how much of that main character can’t see/doesn’t look at him should I put in the stage directions?

Obviously the reveal is for the audience’s benefit not the actors… will I kill the actors' understanding of The Moment by signposting it too hard, or do I have to tell them pretty clearly the first time round so they get the reveal??

All the reveals I can think of aren’t the same…like nothing physically on stage has to ‘collude’ in the misdirection: An Inspector Calls the ghostly revelation/implication is after he’s left, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf the not-kid isn’t ever on stage (this wouldn’t work for my story: need emotional investment in the guy that turns out to be dead already, difficult to pull that off with him an off-stage character—Woolf was about the parent’s need for a child, not the child).

Any thoughts?
 
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LittlePinto

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You don't have to put up billboards for the actors/director. Just put enough information about the non-interaction of the main character and ghost character in the stage directions to tell the story.
 

Maryn

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Have you seen "Proof" or read the script? It deals with exactly this issue--a character in part of the play is dead and only one character sees that person. I've seen it twice, but not read it, so I'd be interested in how the stage directions go.

It's not the playwright's job to tell the actors how to do their jobs, right? That's the director's purview. He or she will know this character is a ghost and that the others cannot see him. So will the actors, of course. It's up to them, working together, to determine where they look and how they move as they deliver the lines you wrote, leading up to the big reveal for the audience. You only provide stage direction when it affects the plot. (Maryn hides the gun in her purse before Muppster turns around.)

Maryn, who seems to have mislaid her purse, gun and all
 

LittlePinto

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Well, guess what I have sitting on my desk. I was thinking of David Auburn's Proof as well but Catherine interacts directly with Robert so I didn't mention it.

The relevant part is the first half of Act One, Scene I.

The opening stage directions read:

Night. CATHERINE sits in a chair. She is exhausted, haphazardly dressed. Eyes closed. ROBERT is standing behind her. He is CATHERINE'S father. Rumpled academic look. CATHERINE does not know he is there.

He addresses her in the first line of dialogue, thus revealing his presence.

From that point there are only the occasional parentheticals for the dialogue and a couple of stage directions concerning props.

One key thing I noted while reading this scene was that Robert does not interact with the main prop, a bottle of champagne. It comes up a couple of times and before the character would have a chance to actually lay hands on it, the dialogue directs him away. It's very subtle and within the characters' natures to redirect the conversation so that you just think they're interacting normally, not that Auburn is intentionally keeping Robert from handling anything.

There is no obvious indication that anything is amiss until Catherine says, "You died a week ago." At that point, the lack of interaction with the props at three points in the scene takes on a deeper meaning.

When my partner and I staged this scene for a class, we designed what we did around the reveal. Once we knew that Robert was a hallucination or dream, we made sure that he did not physically move any of the props or stage furniture. For example, he could sit in a chair but he couldn't slide it away from the table. Auburn didn't need to tell us to do it explicitly because it was implied by the circumstances.
 
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Muppster

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@LittlePinto: exactly what I'm aiming for :) Wasn't sure if I should put in that CATHERINE does not know he is there line or leave it to be obvious after the first read-through.

Thanks all.
 

Doug B

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I directed Proof several years ago when it first came out. My recollection is that this is not the first time he has appeared to her (even though it is the start of the play). She knows that he is not really there - even as a ghost. This scene takes place in her mind so she doesn't really see him. My take on it was that there were two reasons for him to be in the scene: First it is more interesting to watch him rather that using a voice over and secondly, we needed to see him so we would notice the changes in him in the flashback scene.

I recently closed the play "Love Song" by John Kolvenback. The play centers around Beane, a very unhappy young man who "invents" an imaginary girl friend. It is not until the last ten minutes that the audience realizes she is imaginary. The play contains over a dozen "breadcrumbs" as the story goes along that, in retrospect, point to the fact that she is imaginary. The breadcrumbs are so subtle that no one seemed to catch on that she was imaginary but many realized that there was something unusual about her but didn't know what until Beane tells her "Molly, they can't hear you."

It is very tricky to sell breadcrumbs to the audience: Too subtle and they are lost, too blatant and you give it away too soon.

Just my thoughts.

Doug B
 
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gp101

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Have you seen "Proof" or read the script? It deals with exactly this issue--a character in part of the play is dead and only one character sees that person. I've seen it twice, but not read it, so I'd be interested in how the stage directions go.

It's not the playwright's job to tell the actors how to do their jobs, right? That's the director's purview. He or she will know this character is a ghost and that the others cannot see him. So will the actors, of course. It's up to them, working together, to determine where they look and how they move as they deliver the lines you wrote, leading up to the big reveal for the audience. You only provide stage direction when it affects the plot. (Maryn hides the gun in her purse before Muppster turns around.)

Maryn, who seems to have mislaid her purse, gun and all

Great advice from sage Maryn in regards to your particular question. I would add that the script should be as much a surprise to actors/readers on their first pass as it will be for audiences.